AL HAWAJ: ‘116 CONTRACTING COMPANIES QUALIFIED SINCE THE START OF 2015’

Technical Services Assistant Undersecretary at the Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs & Urban Planning Eng. Ebrahim Al Hawaj revealed that the Ministry, represented by the Cost Engineering Directorate, has qualified 116 contracting companies who applied since the beginning of year 2015. The applications varied between new qualification requests, pre-qualification requests, renewal and upgrade requests. Through this service, the Ministry aims to improve the quality of projects, provide an updated and renewable database that targets all contracting companies regardless of their levels and capabilities and measures their performance regularly to benefit all concerned parties from both the public and private sectors.

Al Hawaj stated that qualification licenses are granted to applicants based on their specialization and potential, while qualification class and degree are determined upon the evaluation results. A number of ministries and governmental agencies adopt the qualification results and qualified contractors lists issued by the Ministry of Works and include them within the requirements related to their projects. The Ministry’s list presently includes 521 qualification licenses for contracting companies categorized based on classes and degrees of the construction sector, 114 for the roads sector and 147 for the sanitary sector; varying between local and international companies.

The Ministry evaluates the applications placed by companies who wish to participate in the Ministry’s construction and maintenance projects in the construction and building maintenance sector, the roads and the sanitary sectors. The companies are evaluated technically and financially in accordance with strict and intricate specifications that have been put in place to suit the requirements of each field. The specifications have been accredited by the Tender Board, who also approves the qualification results.

Al Hawaj explained that the qualification service is announced in local newspapers on an annual basis, for which companies wishing to apply fill a form and attach all requirements before presenting the application to the Ministry’s Cost Engineering Directorate’s Qualification Group. The group then studies the application to make sure it conforms to all conditions and requirements. Qualification fees are to be paid by the applicant according to laws and regulations. Every application is reviewed prior to informing the applicant of the result, after which a qualification license is issued for a period of two years, on the condition that the applying company should renew the application before the license expires.

The Ministry’s portal (www.works.gov.bh) includes all data and forms needed for the qualification process, in addition to updated lists of qualified contractors. The applying company can follow-up the qualification process through the electronic qualification service, where they would have their own account through which they can track the whole process.